“Well,” Embree said, “what was the trajectory of the program before I was hired?”

It obviously was not up, but so what? Schools want turnaround specialists. They lust for the next Urban Meyer or Jim Tressel or Nick Saban.

Each won a national championship two years after being hired. Southern Miss isn’t Alabama, but Johnson sure wasn’t on the right trajectory going 0-12.

If it sounds as if our institutes of higher learning have turned into Bain Capital, here’s a news flash:

College football is a business.

With TV deals and bowl bids, the money has exploded. Texas’ football program generated a $71.2 million profit in 2011. Arkansas’ athletic department saw the value of its football program jump 59 percent in two years, to $89 million.

Thank you, Bobby Petrino. Too bad he couldn’t keep his Harley on the right trajectory.

Coaches have reason to complain. It can take four years of fresh recruits and attitude to rebuild a football company.

But the CEOs helped create this ax-wielding monster. And the hazard pay is pretty good. Forty-two major-college coaches made more than $2 million this season. The average salary has jumped 70 percent since 2006. But with that, failure is not an option.

Shug Jordan went 7-13 in his first two years at Auburn. Lucky for him, it was 60 years ago and Bear Bryant had yet to set up shop in Tuscaloosa. The Tigers stuck with Jordan and won a national championship in 1957.

Knute Rockne went 5-4 in 1928. If today’s approach were in place then, he’d have been doing color commentary on ESPN in 1929. Instead, he was leading Notre Dame to a national championship.

You don’t have to tell Embree or Chizik or Johnson that patience is still a virtue. They might have eventually succeeded, but money has quickly altered college football’s trajectory.

That may be unfair, but coaches shouldn’t gripe too much. Tennessee has to pay Dooley $5 million not to coach. Colorado owed Embree $1.5 million. Chizik’s buyout was $7.5 million.